Blue Oyster Spiral

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 12:00:00 +0000

Blue Oyster Spiral is a video zooming into the Mandelbrot set for two-and-a-half minutes. Hard to believe that it’s just one simple equation.

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Ki 20 Sep 2006 3:45 am: neat

Objective vs Subjective Probability

Tue, 24 Dec 2002 12:00:00 +0000

Determinism, Chaos and Quantum Mechanics [PDF]. Interesting 30-pager by Jean Bricmont. He begins by differentiating predictability from determinism, and proceeds to explain how chaos theory supports determinism by enhancing predictability.

As an interesting aside, Bricmont’s article points out that there are 2 kinds of probabilities. Objective probability is where I know that if I toss a fair coin enough times, it’ll turn up heads 50% of the time. Subjective probability is where I think there’s a 10% chance it’ll rain tomorrow, and I don’t care to repeat the event. The former is an informed statement about a system. The latter is our best guess about an event. The former number is a constant, if we’ve done the calculations right. The latter number can change as our knowledge of the event increases.

Comments

Taye 24 Dec 2002 12:00 pm: The difference between subjective and objective probability is elegantly stated. I think I got it right. Thanks!
shahzad munir 23 Oct 2008 3:29 am: there no comment
Sadaf 18 Jan 2009 2:33 pm: The difference is stated the way it can be easily grasp by a beginner. Good work!
Sajid 6 Sep 2009 11:04 am: example best describes the difference.thanks
Aby Tellas 3 Mar 2010 5:26 am: Anand, Well explained. Clear Spic and span
How To Bet On Football Successfully 24 Apr 2013 1:44 pm (pingback): […] Tips can be both objective and subjective. To get success and profit you must be a good and skilful observer. The historical data that you have will help you to set up a plan. You must keep records of goals scored by your player or team. All you need is to understand the complexity of the game. If you go for harder practice you will become an expert. […]
anurag 1 Mar 2017 10:18 am: nice sir

Aditya Birla scholarship interview

Wed, 06 Oct 1999 12:00:00 +0000

First year students ranking in the top 20 in CAT from each of the IIMs are eligible to apply to this scholarship. It pays for the tuition fee for the two years at IIM-B, and hence is worth about Rs. 2 lakhs.

The resume is the key to shortlisting. The Aditya Birla group assigned a weightage to each achievement (depending on whether it was at the national level, state level, college level, etc.) and added up the points. The top point scorers were chosen. Some points are awarded to the write-up also. From IIM-B, Vijayalakshmi and myself were shortlisted in 1999. 8 were shortlisted from IIM-A and IIM-C respectively, while 2 more were from IIM-L. The scholarship was awarded to 10 people finally. The distribution was 4-1-4-1 across A, B, C and L. Viji won it from IIM-B.

In 2000, 13 were shortlisted from IIM-B, and the following 8 were in the 10 that won the scholarship. Vikas Purohit, Karan Bajaj, Prahlad Rao, Yashodhara Lal, Pratyush Tiwari, Lavanya Chari, Prashant Koorse, Saurabh Jhalaria

In 1999, Viji & I were put up at the Grand Hotel. They briefed us the earlier night about allowances (Rs. 1,000 + 50% of the travel fare). Since I’d flown, I ended up making a loss on the trip – but spending an hour at the Taj Hotel was worth it. The interview was spread across the next day from 9AM to 6PM, and the results were announced over dinner at 8PM. We flew back the next morning, just in time for Prof. Ramesh Kumar’s first lecture on marketing.

The interview panel was ‘star-studded’. I didn’t know anyone except Dr. Alagh of the planning commission. The others were from NGOs and big companies.

Interview questions

Which is more important: character, competence or charisma?
What do you think India needs to do to improve?
How do you plan to contribute socially after you graduate?
How can an educational institution like IIM-B take steps to improve its effectiveness?
Tell us about some challenges that you faced when at work.

It was an ad-hoc interview, only partly based on the resume. The only question based on the resume was “How will you apply Chaos Theory to management?” Mine was the first interview, and I thought I had done well.

Learnings

The writeup is critical. They hired an external agency to do the evaluation, and study it very carefully.
The competition is the toughest I have faced. Guys from the other IIMs (they were all GUYS, except Viji) are extremely smart.
I think the interview counted for more than the writeup, at least after the shortlist. I had done fairly well in the writeup, and the interview was the unknown factor.

Comments

gurdeep singh 20 Nov 2008 12:48 am: I am gurdeep singh from bangalore . am 1st year MBA student.. i want to know that can i apply for schlorship? please help me regarding this.
S Anand 20 Nov 2008 1:58 am: @Gurdeep: If you’re in your first year at IIM, the scholarship details will
be announced to you. To my knowledge, the scholarship isn’t available
outside of the IITs and IIMs.
Aiborlang Andrew Chyne 6 Oct 1999 12:00 pm: Can I get an educational sponsorships from the top MNC’s.
Pushp Saurav 29 Sep 2008 10:23 am: Anand,
I, a 3rd year student of BITS-Pilani, am a Aditya Birla Scholar of 2006 Batch. Had gone to attend the 10th anniversary of ABS, held in The Taj, Mumbai. A scholar from your batch Prashant Sarin had also come to attend this ceremony. Do you know him ???
Anonymous 25 Nov 2010 8:21 am: uhm..i got 431 this year, dats in JEE-2010
Anonymous 25 Nov 2010 8:20 am: uhmm…actually m a 1st yr undergraduate student iit kharagpur and had secured an AIR 431 which lies int he top 15 ranks of my college. i was never told of this scholarship nor any announcements ver made in dis regard. i seriously regret not having applied for this scholarship..it was today i learnt that i cud hv been eligible.. is der nething i can do now? i kw its kinda late…
vibhor jain 1 Oct 2011 8:20 am: I want to ask why is this scholorship is not given for other eligible students of other colleges many hundreds of colleges are there and this is not necessary that entire talent of country is in iit’s or iim’s these insitutions are not running up the whole country so what about the other non priviledged deserving students???? further these iims and iits have so much variatiion in admissions due to quota etc? so what about other thousands of youngsters they are also indians and they also have right on resources and wealth of country if they are eligible so i think “ADITYA BIRLA SCOLORSHIPS SHOULD BE OPEN FOR ALL COLLEGE STUDENTS OF INDIA”

chaos-theory on S Anand

Blue Oyster Spiral

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Objective vs Subjective Probability

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Aditya Birla scholarship interview

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